Apple and Elan settle touch patent dispute to the tune of $5 million

Elan Microelectronics Corp, a Taiwan-based technology company, announced on Thursday that it has settled its pending litigation with Apple over touch technology patents. According to Reuters, the settlement includes a $5 million payout from Apple and an agreement to cross-license touch-related patents.

Elan originally sued Apple in early 2009, claiming its iOS devices, MacBook, and MacBook Pros violated two of Elan's patents related to multitouch sensing technology. Elan had already successfully litigated one of those patents against Synaptics, a touch technology company that was involved in early iPod touch wheel designs. Apple countersued over alleged infringement of its own touch patents. Elan also filed a parallel complaint with the ITC, but the ITC ruled that Apple did not violate Elan's patents according to the claim construction.

Although Apple already had a favorable ruling from the ITC on its side, that doesn't necessarily guarantee a win in federal court. A $5 million settlement may be a large windfall for Elan, but it's a relative drop in the bucket for Apple, which has billions in the bank. We suspect Apple decided it was far cheaper and easier to settle. (Neither Elan nor Apple responded to our request for comment by publication time.)